NYC

Kari and I made it back from NYC safe and sound. It was a great trip and we both had a lot of fun. We flew into New Jersey on Thursday night, and took a cab to her friend Allison's condo in Hoboken, NJ. That was where we would shack up for the weekend.

Friday, Kari and I went into the city with Allison in hopes of catching some of the today show, however, we departed later than expected. By the time we arrived, Neal Diamond was getting ready to perform on the outdoor stage, neither of us cared! So we headed over to Rockefeller Center (across the street) and went to the NBC Studios. We took a tour and got to see the sets of Saturday Night Live, Conan O'Brien, and The NBC Nightly News.

Following our tour of NBC we jumped on a tour bus and rode around the city. The bus was like a double decker, with seats on the top. It was one of those deals where you could get off and on the bus whenever it made stops if you wanted to visit something specific.

We jumped off around 1-2 for lunch at Lombardis, the "best pizza" in NYC according to a few online resources (scouted out by Kari!). The food was good, and sadly, one of my favorite pictures of the entire trip was from this location, but didn't download properly onto my computer (corrupted or something). It was Kari taking a huge bite out of an even huger piece of Pepperoni Pizza.

We also jumped out at a couple other locations, including Ground Zero, Times Square, and some other spots. After our tour was done, we met up with Allison and my friend Mike Edwards (came up from Washington D.C. to attend the game). We went to dinner at Mickey Mantle's restaurant. The food was good, and the Martini's were expensive! If there isn't a price on the menu, take it as a hint. We went out after dinner and met a couple of Mike's friends for a couple beverages and to watch Allison try and make a tent out of her coat to sleep under at our table.

The next morning we went back down to Rockefeller Center because we had tickets to take us to the top of the building to get a view of the city. We had intended on doing it on Friday, but the foggy conditions meant very poor visibility, so we waited it out as long as we could. After that, we took off for Grand Central Station where we were meeting Mike to catch a train to Yankee Stadium.

Once we arrived at the park, we walked around the outside of the stadium. I was surprised how "plain" it was. I've been to many other ballparks, and almost all of them looked a lot nicer, and had more "fanfare" surrounding the entrance. At one point, I actually asked a police officer where the front of the stadium was, thinking they would have statues of Yankee Greats (Lou Gehrig, Babe Ruth, Don Mattingly!) or World Championship Pennants, and the officer informed me that I was actually at the front gate. I would have never guessed...

Once we got into the stadium, and found our way to our seats, it was almost game time. One of my friends (that works for the Pittsburgh Pirates) was able to help us purchase some good seats. When we had searched months in advance the "best available" seats were in the second deck in right field. With Matt's help, we sat behind home plate, in the "Main MVP Box" in section 202. The game was really fun, the Yankees won 6-1. Highlights included a monster home run into the second deck of right field by Johnny Damon, and two RBI doubles from Derek Jeter. Following the game, we picked up a few souvenirs and headed back to the city.

Here are some photos

Anyhow, the trip was an excellent time. I would write more but my eyes are starting to hurt from looking at the screen so long! Hope everyone is doing well!

Iron Man

It's a must see. If you haven't gone, go. If you weren't planning on going, go. If you've already been, go again.

I'd like Kari Johns to be the Interview-eee

I know some of you have met my favorite Daughter-in-Law, but most of you have not. She's been part of our family for (in December) 5 years. If you knew her, you'd love her. Ben: How about getting her onto this site? Love, Mom/Rachel